The possibility that he may be going insane weighed heavily on Josh's mind. So much so he almost wished Hannah would speak as they walked to the nurse's office, but she was surprisingly quiet. He'd expected an interrogation from her the moment they were alone.

It would come at some point. The wait for it may just drive him even crazier first.

He managed to keep his mouth shut until they approached the door to the school office. "Uh, Hannah, why are we here?"

Hannah paused, her hand on the door handle. She turned narrowed eyes on Josh. "You're kidding me, right? You're a junior and you still don't know where the nurse's office is?"

As she spoke, a partial memory rose up of hearing about the nurse's office being situated in the back of the main office. He shrugged. "Never cared. I haven't had to go there before."

Lips pressing into a thin line and eyes narrowing, Hannah said, "Of course you haven't." She opened the door and stepped inside.

Josh followed, barely repressing a wince. She'd already been suspicious enough, and now here he was, adding fuel to the flame. Of all people outside of his family, she best knew how hard it was to hurt him. She'd seen him fall twenty feet from a tree, land awkwardly, and walk it off without a mark.

There was no reason for him to need to be here, and he had done nothing but remind her of that.

The office was quiet this time of the day. A parent spoke to the secretary about their kid's doctor's appointment and a student sat outside the principal's office, arms crossed. A senior, that period's office duty student, sat behind the desk. She raised her head when Hannah and Josh neared.

"What are you doing here, Hannah?" the girl asked.

Hannah pointed further back in the room. "Taking my friend to the nurse's. See you in History, Desirea."

They walked on to an office tucked nicely in the back corner. The nurse sat behind a wooden desk, jotting down notes on a paper. She looked up when they stopped outside her door. Her gaze flicked between them, scrutinizing everything in a way Josh had seen his mom do often when she examined an injury.

"Hello," she said. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah." Josh shifted as her gaze settled on him. He should have talked Hannah into letting him hide in the bathrooms until class ended. He had no idea how things worked with nurses except casual check-ups. "My teacher wanted me to get checked out."

The nurse hummed, her brows drawn together in confusion as she continued to look him over. By all outside appearances, it likely didn't look like he needed any attention. "Well, please, have a seat." Once they did, she continued, "So, what exactly happened?"

Josh gestured at his head. "We were playing soccer at gym class. Someone kicked the ball and it hit me in the head. Mr. Willis thinks I passed out for a few seconds."

The confusion shifted to something more like worry. "Well, at least it was gym class. I've seen more than enough incidents from shop class." With one last, lingering studying, the nurse turned to her files. "What's your name?"

"Joshua Davidson."

"Okay, Josh," she said as she plucked a vanilla envelope from the files. She placed it on the desk, revealing his name printed along the top. Pausing for a moment, she scanned the documents. When she was satisfied, she searched through her desk drawers. "Do you have any history with head injuries?"

Hannah snorted, knowing full well Josh's lack of experience with any sort of injury. At the nurse's questioning brow, Hannah shifted it into a cough. "Sorry. I had something in my throat."

The nurse waved a hand toward the desk edge and switched to another drawer. "There is a cough drop in that duck knick-knack if you—aha! There it is." She rose back up, a small flashlight in hand. "We're going to need to do a few quick tests, alright?"

Those tests ended up pretty basic. She had him walk a straight line, asked him to repeat the events before and after the hit, follow a few simple movement instructions, and finally she flashed that stupid flashlight right in his eyes.

The nurse leaned against her desk, tapping the flashlight on her chin. "Well, I can't find any signs of a concussion. There is no headache, pressure, or any sort of pain?"

"No," Josh said, still rubbing the spots from his eyes. "But, well, you've seen my medical card, right? Wasn't it in that folder?"

"Yes. It says you have some variation of C.I.P. Extremely dulled pain sensors, but not nonexistent like most C.I.P cases. Are you still able to experience headaches?"

Josh shrugged. "I think I had some as a kid, but not really any in recent memory. But..."

The nurse didn't prod him on, instead letting the pause grow. Josh knew what he had to say, but whether or not it was on his medical card and diagnosed by a doctor, the worry of being labeled insane nipped at him.

Finally, she crossed her arms. When she spoke, though, it wasn't to Josh. "Miss Edwards, don't you need to return to class?"

Hannah instantly looked at Josh, and he tried to give a shrug small enough that the nurse wouldn't notice. He had no idea what had taken the nurse's mind that route.

"I should have asked you sooner. Visits, after all, are supposed to be more private than this."

Josh didn't have enough experience to deny that, but he did realize that this wasn't fully about privacy. Hannah, having office duty for her fourth period and for the entirety of last year, would know if the nurse let friends join their friends. The only reason the nurse would think of privacy was if she blamed that for Josh's hesitance.

"Well, uh..." Hannah squirmed. She wasn't one to disrespect or disobey an authority figure, but she'd come here on a mission to figure out what was going on.

Josh sighed. She was going to question him at some point. Letting the nurse send her off now would only make it worse. "She's okay. I'm fine with her being here. She already knows about all this stuff."

The nurse pressed her lips together, but after a moment, she asked, "This stuff?"

Josh nodded. "I'm not actually sure I passed out. I've been having a lot of, uh, incidents today with my other issue."

The nurse's eyes flicked back toward his file, though she couldn't have seen what it said from her current angle. "The maladaptive daydreaming?"

"Yeah." Josh rubbed the back of his neck. "Do you know much about it?"

Her lip quirked. "I am not sure anyone knows much about it. It's a rather new and unknown condition at the moment. But what does this have to do with passing out?"

"Like I said, I'm not sure I did. My daydreams have been acting up really badly today, and I had a, well, episode at gym. When I was on the ground, I was just having one of those."

"Ah," the nurse said, though the confusion hadn't completely lifted.

Hannah's face, on the other hand, lit up with understanding. That quickly shifted to a concern mixed with suspicions. She knew why that was so odd.

Josh shifted in his seat. "I've not actually had any incidents in a few years, though. I've been having trouble sleeping, and I was wondering if you'd think that would be causing it to act up?"

The nurse continued to tap her chin with the flashlight. "It's possible." She spoke slowly, probably going through what little she may know about the rare disorder. "Lack of sleep does make one more prone to drifting thoughts. Hm... What is causing the sleeping issues? Have there been any other recent changes that could trigger it?"

It would be best for Josh to tell the truth. He knew this, but the words stuck to the inside of his throat. He'd already been considered weird enough when he was a kid for zoning out in ways he couldn't control. Did he really want to be told he was crazy again because of these dreams?

As if in answer to himself and the nurse, he shook his head. "No. I've just been distracted by games and stuff. I didn't realize how weird it'd make me feel."

She began to nod as he talked, easing some of the worry from his muscles. If this made sense to her, maybe all of this really was just a strange sleep schedule. He had been playing a lot of games late into the night before all of this started. Not that it was entirely unusual, but maybe he'd been staying up later than he realized.

"I want you to try and sleep some more. If that doesn't help, you should ask your parents to contact your family doctor." She studied him, worried creases between her brows. "You're sure that nothing else feels wrong? There are some factors to head injuries that we can only know based on how you feel. Is there even slight pressure or anything?"

"No, there's nothing."

After a moment, the nurse sighed. "Okay, but I would prefer that you don't participate in gym. I'd like you to stay here until next period, okay?"

Josh nodded.

"Miss Edwards," the nurse went on, turning to Hannah. "Would you be able to return to class and inform Mr. Willis about this?"

Hannah's cheeks flushed. "I'm not actually in Josh's class. I just kind of stumbled upon him and offered to bring him here."

"Oh." The nurse frowned. "Does your teacher know you're here?"

"Yes, he does."

Josh was torn between feeling bad that Hannah had to lie and wanting to chuckle.

If the nurse doubted Hannah's words, she didn't voice it. Instead, with a sigh, the nurse pushed off her desk. "Well, I won't send you all the way to the field then, but you should head back to class soon. Josh, you can go lay down on one of the cots."

"Got it."

"I'll return after I find a way to contact your teacher." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'll probably have to try to find out where they've put the office's walkie talkie."

The nurse left the office after that. Josh walked to the cot on the office's right hand wall and got comfy. When his head touched the pillow, he could believe the craziness of the day really was from the lack of sleep. His eyes grew heavy, and after a single blink, it was hard to open his eyes again.

But he couldn't rest yet. Footsteps approached him. Hannah hadn't left, and a quick peek revealed why. She was ready for the interrogation. 

Fun fact: Josh had always had increased pain tolerance, but the daydreams are new this draft.  Both disorders associated with them are real.  I found maladaptive daydreaming on accident one time, and I once had a friend with CIPA.  I tried to tweak the CIPA a bit as it's clear that he doesn't fully fit the requirements.

First an interrogation from the nurse, and it looks like another is coming up from Hannah, but we got to learn some interesting things about Josh's medical history this part.  I'm sure it'll play no greater part in the story though :D Y'all ready to see Hannah grill Josh? XD

Let me know your thoughts on the chapter down below, and if you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote and comment! I also have a discord open to anyone who wants to join, and we have a section there to discuss the book :D It's in my bio if you'd like to join!